Peter Smith on IT World has written an article on three new subscription services for eBooks.

Scribd and Oyster charge a $9 or $10 per month for unlimited access to the books in their respective libraries. Unlimited access means that you can read as many books as you want. The caveat with these services is that you are not actually purchasing the books. If you cancel your subscription – the books are gone.

eReatah charges from $15 – $30 per month depending on the number of books that you wish to purchase: 2, 3, or 4. The key word is purchase – if you cancel your subscription – you still have your previously purchased eBooks.

Deciding factors when deciding between these services:

The device used to read books. All services do not support all devices.

How many books do you read per month?

How many books do you buy per month?

Do you only read books once, or do you like to read your favorites multiple times.

Which publishers are included with the respective service? Although each service may have thousands of books, they may not all have the same books.

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This You Tube video briefly compares the ‘cloud’ eBook readers from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Amazon, and OverDrive Media. [Most public libraries that lend eBooks use OverDrive as the lending ‘agent’.]

Basically, a cloud reader is browser based. You surf to the specific site’s URL, login, and then read your purchased eBooks. This is a benefit for people whose mobile devices do not have an app for any of the respective eBook sellers.

The question is, can you use these cloud readers without owning an actual reader? If you can, will the proliferation of smart phones and tablets spell doom for the eReader?